Mortise and tenon is a part of human wood-framed construction history and has been used to construct many different objects such as furniture, buildings, or other house appliances. However, existing methods of mortise and tenon joinery are far from perfect and create several issues when the user is applying mortise and tenon to various situations. First, traditional wood-to-wood mortise and tenon joinery requires a skilled craftsperson or expert in the trade to cut the rectangular tenons and bore the matching, deep, rectangular mortises. Second, the traditional method of wood-to-wood mortise and tenon requires glue to ensure the mortise and tenon remain attached to each other. Using glue adds the elements of application time, glue costs, drying time and glue cleanup. Third, clamps or other tools are required to bring and then hold the mortise and tenon together until the glue is dried. Moreover, clamps only work for short perpendicular or parallel connections and not for connections where the plurality of objects or members is long or at angles other than perpendicular or parallel. Fourth, metal-to-metal connections require welding skills and a welding machine and/or metalworking equipment. Fifth, metal-to-wood connections require both metalworking and woodworking skills, tools, and machinery. Sixth, connections made of wood-to-wood are not as weather-resistant as metal-to-metal, metal-to-wood or synthetics and will shrink and leave a gap between the object's joints and may lead to further deterioration from weather or insects. Seventh, where the first object is in horizontal position and the second object is in a vertical position, with through-tenons joined at 90.0 degrees where the horizontal object must be offset, higher or lower, on the vertical object, to prevent the through-tenons from colliding inside the vertical object. Eighth, if the plurality objects are connected with glue or welded to each other, the plurality of joined objects cannot later be separated and then reconnected multiple times without severe damage. Ninth, if conventional wood screws are used to connect the first object and the second object, and then attempts are made to remove and then reinsert those screws, for purposes of disconnecting the first object and the second object, the hole created by the screw is enlarged with each attempt resulting in a connection that will fail.
Other variations of mortise and tenon joinery include dowel or biscuit mortise and tenon methods. However, these methods also create issues. For example, boring a mortise on the butt end of the first object to receive a dowel or biscuit is difficult due to the small surrounding surface area. Also, the dowels, biscuits, and the tools or jigs to create the mortises are sized to work with furniture-sized second object thus not available for larger-scale objects such as those used for timber-frame or post and beam construction. Furthermore, timber-frame and post and beam construction methods also have issues. For example, timber-frame and post and beam are very heavy, highly skilled carpenters and expensive tools are required to create the large tenons, to bore the deep mortises and difficult to test-fit without long, heavy, expensive clamps.
Accordingly, the present inventor has endeavored to develop fasteners, systems, and methods for wood construction that eliminate or minimize issues of conventional wood constructions methods, and through research and development, the present inventor has developed the fasteners, systems, and methods described hereinbelow.